Montana Agriculture Department Director Ron de Yong informally asked BNSF Railway officials to reopen the Great Falls to Helena line to help deal with increased use and delays in shipping along the Hi-Line in northern Montana.

A BNSF spokesman said the railroad has no plans to re-establish service now between Helena and Great Falls, citing the “substantial” costs of reopening the line that’s been closed for almost 15 years.

De Yong made the comment at the Montana Farmers Union convention in Great Falls last weekend and elaborated this week in an interview with the Tribune.

He said he made the request to state BNSF officials a few times during meetings and conference phone calls because he thinks increased oil, coal and intermodal container shipments have decreased the railroad’s ability to ship corn, soybeans and wheat west efficiently on the line. There’s even been increased production of pulse crops in Montana, which many farmers grow in years they let their wheat fields lie fallow, thereby increasing shipment needs, he said.

“In my mind, we’ve had a major shift in the last year in BNSF’s ability to meet the needs of Montana shippers,” de Yong said.

BNSF has tried to increase its shipping capacity by adding more rail cars and double tracking 60 miles between Minot, N.D., and Glasgow, which has helped some, he said, but oil production and shipments are still increasing.

Montana’s top state agriculture official said he has asked BNSF officials to consider reopening the Great Falls to Helena line to help reduce the bottleneck on the northern route. De Yong said reopening the route also would help for two other reasons:

• BNSF will never be able to double track along the scenic southern border of Glacier National Park for either “physical or political reasons,” he said, since it might take blasting away part of a mountainside.

If a major snow slide knocked oil cars from a BNSF train into the Middle Fork of the Flathead, it would take considerable time to reopen the key route, de Yong said. If that happened, those important rail shipments could be rerouted from Shelby to the reopened Great Falls to Helena route, and then sent to Spokane and west via Montana Rail Link.

• As the Golden Triangle area north of Great Falls continues to diversify, the Great Falls to Helena route could help in shipping its products to the south.

For instance, he said, Colorado brewers would be interested in Montana’s prime malting barley and there likely would be markets for the pulse crops such as peas and lentils.

But the railroad’s regional public affairs director, Matt Jones, said the change is not in the works at this point.

“BNSF has no plans to reestablish service between Helena and Great Falls,” Jones said. “However, as we consider additional capacity needs, we will evaluate all of our options to determine the best economical and operational alternatives to expand capacity to accommodate increased train traffic.”

Jones said the Great Falls to Helena line has been out of service since 2000, and would require “a substantial amount of investment” to reopen, including upgrading or installing new track, sidings, bridges, signals and telecommunications systems. He could not provide a cost estimate. BNSF has occasionally stored surplus rail cars along part of the route.

BNSF is making record investments to add capacity for growing traffic along the northern corridor, he said, with about $1 billion being spent this in five states, including $160 million in Montana to build, extend or upgrade sidings and train yards and do maintenance work on 900 miles of track.

Jones said BNSF already connects with Montana Rail Link through its Great Falls to Laurel line and at Sandpoint, Idaho.

“At this point the potential revenue we’d gain from reopening the Great Falls to Helena line does not justify the cost, when compared with other investments to add capacity to the northern corridor,” he said.